Fiction only. For a 9 typical year old girl and one for a 12 year old boy with gothic tastes. My son just finished reading the Erago series. Were both not happy about the movie. The dragon in the book has jewel like scales and the one in the previews doesn't!

I'm asking my DD, she's 10 and enjoys fantasy. We're going from memory here so I don't have all of the authors.

The Water Mirror - a series that is not fully released. I read this one and thought it was fun. Mermaids and stuff.

Pendragon series - there are 8 and my DD loves them.

The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper Magic use, I haven't read it so I don't know if it is realistic in any way. If your path involves magic, it might be more annoying than entertaining.

The Dark Hills Divide trilogy - I actually read these three and they were pretty neat. 12 y/o girl that find some kind of stone that allows her to talk to animals. There is some kind of trek to save the world and such.

They Merlin Conspiracy - Diana Wynne Jones I really enjoyed this one.

Inkheart and Inkspell

If we come up with more, I'll post again.

Came up with more....

I'm going to send you a link via PM with a list of books for the 12 year old. I was quite gothic as a teen and still hold many of those qualities as an adult. I have been a member of an online gothic community for several years and at one point had asked many of the members if they could recommend some good reading material for my DD. We've checked out a couple of the suggestions, but not all of them as there were WAY more responses than I had anticipated. The link I am sending is to the thread where I asked for recomendations. I hope you can find some interesting ideas there.

Can't go wrong with Lord of the Rings. Chronicles of Narnia is great too, I still reread those from time to time. The latter does of have Christian themes, but not to an extent that is likely to cause problems for you.

I can't recommend the David Eddings' fantasy series The Belgariad and its sequel series The Mallorean enough. It's absolutely the most fun to read. When I suggest the books, though, I also usually tell people to skip the prologues--- they're not really necessary to understanding any of the books and can give away info that you'd like to be more surprised by later on. The one thing everyone who's read them seems to agree on is that it feels like you're saying good-bye to a group of friends when you finish reading them.

As for your daughter, the Anne of Green Gables books might be enjoyable. It's a bit hard to make a really good suggestion here without knowing if she likes modern or historical works. The Witch of Blackbird Pond was also excellent. Island of the Blue Dolphins was popular with some of my former students as well. Books like A Wrinkle in Time and Bridge to Terabithia might appeal to her, too.

Redhead
"Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil." C.S. Lewis